If you’ve been with me for awhile you’ll recall when I first shared that Morgan had developed vitiligo. At the time I was mad, confused and felt guilty like it was something I had done. We all know how people can be sometimes by staring and asking questions in a very rude manner. I decided to educate myself more about vitiligo and I made sure that my main focus would be on celebrating how unique my daughter is and not harp on her differences.

Morgan

Over the last 3 years not only has her self esteem not wavered, I feel like she is so much more outgoing (and definitely more outspoken). From the beginning, I wanted to make sure that Morgan was able to see other people from all over the world just like her! And can you believe that as big as the vitiligo community is it only makes up 1-2% of the world’s population. Thanks in part to Instagram I’ve had a chance to “meet” some pretty amazing people.

A little over a week ago one of the people I follow shared an image of Amy Deanna. This beautiful young lady was just named as the first CoverGirl model with vitiligo! Can I just tell you that I screamed for joy like she was family?!?! For over 20 years CoverGirl’s trademark slogan had been “Easy, breezy, beautiful…CoverGirl!” Last fall they released their new theme I Am What I Makeup. This new branding is meant to evoke confidence, power, inclusivity, and self-expression. [Read more…]

During the summer I stumbled across a cosmetics company on twitter by the name of No Worries Cosmetics. What caught my eye was that their foundation was no sweat….no sweat people! I spent all summer in Florida and I literally wore makeup one time. And that was to meet up with some of my blogging/social media boos when I went to Jacksonville.

After checking out the site I tweeted the owner, Jill, of No Worries Cosmetics and said that her products would be a god send in this sweltering Florida heat. While reviewing her site I also noticed that she had products that would help with vitiligo coverage. At that point I knew I had to reach out to them to learn more.

In case you missed it, my youngest daughter begin developing vitiligo last summer (read Morgan’s story) and she begin wanting to hide her skin by wearing leggings ALL THE TIME. During the cooler months, that was all fine and dandy but when that summer heat hit I knew she’d end up having a heat stroke trying to stay covered up! I had a chance to speak with the Jill on the phone about their products and I just LOVED the passion she had for her products. When I shared Morgan’s story she stated that she wanted to send her some of their products to try.

Last year when my daughter Morgan developed vitiligo I discussed it with her pediatrician and we were referred to see a dermatologist. The main sign of vitiligo is color (pigment) loss that produces light or white patches on your skin. Usually, the discoloration first shows on sun-exposed areas, such as the hands, feet, arms, face and lips. The doctor was fairly nonchalant about the condition and prescribed a topical cream and to return in 6 weeks. That cream and time seeing that doctor was a complete waste of time, energy and money. In fact, after those 6 weeks it seemed like the white spots turned into patches and just gradually got bigger and bigger. What was even more frustrating was that I learned more about vitiligo from google than I did from either doctor.

Since then we’ve switched pediatricians and our new one feels pretty confident that will get some answers and possibly slow the progression of her vitiligo after seeing a new pediatric dermatologist. Right now her hands, elbows, feet and knees are almost completely white and the areas around her eyes and corners of her mouth. This time around I’m better prepared on questions to ask and wanted to share how we’re preparing for this visit.

A year ago if you asked me about vitiligo I would have just dismissed it as “the condition that MJ had”. But fast forward to today and it’s now a part of our life. A year ago my youngest daughter, Morgan, started developing a few white spots. (Check out the post HERE) Within a matter of months those spots began to spread and before the end of the summer her knees, feet, elbows were completely white and several large spots on her face.

World Vitiligo Day is an annual day specially dedicated to people with vitiligo. Conceived by patients for patients, World Vitiligo Day is a truly global event that aims to increase awareness of vitiligo and raise funds needed for research and education.

The idea of a World Vitiligo Day was first put forward by Steve Haragadon, the founder of the Vitiligo Friends network from USA and then later developed and finalized by Ogo Maduewesi, a vitiligo patient who is the Founder and Executive Director of the Vitiligo Support and Awareness Foundation (VITSAF) in Nigeria. In early 2012, the VR Foundation has launched the 25June campaign and the dedicated website. Read full story on Wikipedia »

Over this last year I’ve done a lot of reasearch and discovered that there is so much that is unknown about vitiligo. We met with a dermatologist and he prescribed a cream which did absolutely nothing. And what was worse is that he was pretty nonchalant and didn’t really have any suggestions on how to even keep her skin protected. It wasn’t until I started to reach out to the vitiligo community did I get a better grasp of this condition.

I’ve been blessed to learn so much from others about how to help my daughter deal with her changes and how important it is to use sunscreen. I met Lorena of Just My Vitiligo on instagram and she’s been so nice at helping give me tips and encouragement for my daughter. I also came across this clip from the show “What Would You Do?”

What would you have done if you were there? The sad part about this video is that there are so many people who actually feel this way. I’ve even had people ask me if my daughter’s vitiligo is because she’s biracial…smh!

I’m just glad that Morgan is happy and healthy and that’s what we’ll be celebrating today!